Sign Lighting

[Pink Jazz]

Three cities near me use backlit street blades, using two different styles.

Puyallup, Wash uses a fatter kind, but I think it looks better because the wires are hidden:



Fife and Lakewood, Wash use a thinner kind, but the wires are (often) highly visible, so I'm not as keen on them. If they hid the wires better, I'd like them a lot more.

The thinner kind uses LEDs for lighting. The fatter kind traditionally uses fluorescent tubes, although some cities have retrofitted them with LED strips.

Here in the Phoenix area most cities have their illuminated signs attached to a side post, although Glendale uses the hanging type.

[paulthemapguy]

The Cook County Highway Department (in Illinois) uses backlit street name signs on all of their signalized intersections.  Most of them have a Cook County emblem on the left-hand side.  Several Chicago suburbs (usually affluent ones) use these as well--Bolingbrook, for example.

[roadfro]

Actually, why didn't backlit signs come into vogue for lighting? They wouldn't be any thicker than a VMS, and wouldn't they cost the same as gantries that have lighting?

I interpreted this question as as referring to backlit BGSs on freeways and such, not the lighted street name signs attached to traffic signal assemblies.


Nevada DOT has tried this with one set of signs on I-15 SB at Flamingo Road. This assembly has a housing that is probably 1/2 to 1/3 the thickness of the VMS signs NDOT typically installs. The Street View is from 2015, but these were around at least as far back as 2009, and possibly several years before that.

I'm only in Vegas a few times a year now, but I can't recall having seen these signs lit at night for a while now (and actually, they might have been replaced with conventional signs within the last year). That might be part of the issue with why such signs haven't taken off in popularity. While backlit signs have the plus of not needing catwalks for lighting assembly maintenance (thus reducing graffiti potential), they're probably more difficult to maintain the lighting for if there's no internal access. What I can remember when NDOT had fluorescent lighting on signs in Las Vegas, the lighting didn't seem to work very well in the elements there (or maybe it just wasn't that bright). So these two items together probably explains why this didn't catch on further.

NDOT has since developed a luminaire retrieval system that eliminates the need for the catwalk on bridge structures (very common in Las Vegas), and has been increasingly deploying non-lit urban freeway signage with better reflective sheeting that better lights signage from vehicle headlights (more so in Reno/Sparks than elsewhere).

[tolbs17]

I think this thread is fine for revival, North Carolina stopped using lighting I think in 2009/2010 or so, but the ones that have lighting still light up at night.

[MikeCL]

I can't remember what state I was in (coming from N.C.) must of been a LED replacement but the lamp was flashing on and off about every second while the other two were fine.. pretty distracting.

[tolbs17]

I can't remember what state I was in (coming from N.C.) must of been a LED replacement but the lamp was flashing on and off about every second while the other two were fine.. pretty distracting.

And to add to this: When I was on the Knightdale bypass (I-87) at night, most of the lighting on the signs don't work anymore and I kinda find that a hazard because the signs are meant to require lighting on them. They are not retroreflective, they are just reflective. They either need to replace the bulbs or replace the signs totally.

Same thing with I-795 in Wilson (although hopefully those get replaced when I-587 comes in).

[Dirt Roads]

I can't remember what state I was in (coming from N.C.) must of been a LED replacement but the lamp was flashing on and off about every second while the other two were fine.. pretty distracting.

Yes, the industry switching from electronic circuit boards to miniature microprocessors has created a mess.  This problem occurs because the light reflects off of something, which activates the daylight sensor and turns the light off.  It wasn't that this effect didn't occur with the electronic versions, but the circuitry tended to have a snubber component (often a Zener diode over a relay coil) that would keep the lamp control circuit energized long enough to avoid the flash process. 

[tolbs17]

No wonder why VDOT is sticking with older technology. They last longer and are more economical. https://goo.gl/maps/vFZLe9aAPBRLZvvh9

Otherwise you'll end up with signs like these: https://goo.gl/maps/uqrFHzGzQgBqxAL68